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A Season for Dreaming: Weekly Message for May 12
Dear Fellow Digital Pilgrim, Pax Christi:
The Easter season (which we are still in, by the way) is a season for dreaming.
The Collect (the opening prayer for Mass) for Easter Sunday reminds us of this when it describes how through the Resurrection God has “conquered death and unlocked the path to eternity.” Eternity. Everlasting life. Life without limits, in full communion with God and all the saints… This is what Jesus won for all of us through this death and resurrection.
The Church gives us eight liturgical weeks of Easter to contemplate that, to dream about what life will be like when all our wounds are healed, all our sufferings over, and all our fears banished. Is that what you have been doing during this season, dreaming about the fullness of life that Jesus is giving us?
If so, keep on dreaming, because we still have a couple weeks more of Easter! If not, it’s not too late. As the Solemnity of Pentecost draws near, take some of your personal prayer time to imagine, together with the Lord, your life as you know it should be. You may even want to take some time to write down in a prayer journal a description of what greater holiness will look like in your life in five, ten, or twenty years from now. Dream big! Jesus has unlocked the “path to eternity” and walks with us along it – what a pity it would be if we never thought joyfully about our destination while we exert ourselves along the journey.
Dreaming and Hoping
If we dream big, nourishing our hope in God’s grace, we will be more open to receive whatever blessings the Lord wants to send us this Pentecost.
To help you dream, to help expand your heart and stir up your holy desires, we are arranging a special meditation novena leading up to Pentecost. Living in the Spirit: A Pentecost Meditation Novena will begin on May 21 and complete on the day before Pentecost Sunday. Some of your fellow digital pilgrims, and members of our spiritual family, will be sharing via videos their own experiences of how God has worked in their lives. They will describe how living in partnership with the Holy Spirit has made a difference in their lives, and what has helped them be better partners. Click here for more information.
Before closing, I want to take a moment to thank all of you who joined us for our first ever “Retreat Guide Live” last Saturday. In spite of a few technical glitches, it turned out to be a positive experience for the over 500 people who joined us. It was so positive, in fact, that we will likely be looking to some more of those in the future. So stay tuned.
Thanks as well to all of you who continue to support our work here with your prayers and donations. Evangelizing the digital continent is an engrossing but demanding adventure, and your generosity enables us to keep doing our part. Keep counting on our prayers for you, as we keep counting on yours for us.
God bless you!
In Him,
Fr John Bartunek, LC
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Dear Fr. John Bartunek, LC
Greetings of Peace, Joy and Love!
Thank you for the gift of your person as God’s instrument and inspiration in spreading His LOVE to the world. I am blessed and grateful that through your words, reflections and experiences helps me to become a better person and sister; to our congregation, to community, to my sisters and to the people around me. The love of Jesus for me gives courage to follow Him..
I hope and pray to you and to your congregation also may this evangelization and mission that you have started will continue to bring people closer to God.
Once again, thank you so much!